WELCOME TO THE EXCELLENT ENTERTAINMENT AND FUN OF THE RITZ ACOUSTIC CLUB. Check out the amazing line-up of acts we have for you in our fourteenth year of existence. Entrance charge for all showcase nights is just £4.00 or non members. There are no tickets available prior to the event, just turn up on the night at 8.00pm prompt and you will get in on the door. Entrance cost for a third thursday is £4.00 for non-members and £1.50 for students and children.

Forthcoming Acts for the Showcase Nights (on our third thursdays) in 2013 are:-

WOODY PINES on MAY 16th

Old-time outback Americana from young US up-and-comers

“Woody Pines brings that low-key street corner style of performance to his stage show, but with all the polish and seasoned professionalism of a tour-bus-and-green-room rock stardom.”~Ali Marshall, Mtn Xpress

Now on his fourth album, Woody Pines is no stranger to fans of the new folk music coming from all corners of the USA. Alongside artists like Old Crow Medicine Show and Pokey LaFarge, Woody continues to dust off the old 45s and make the music new again. Integrating sounds from Leadbelly to Bob Dylan, from Woodie Guthrie to Preservation Hall, Woody Pines belts out songs of fast cars, pretty women and hard luck with a distinctive vintage twang.
Woody’s journey has taken him from street corners and smoky bars to folk festivals and the Grand Ole Opry, but he started with Bob Dylan. As a child, unable to read music,
he made up new tunes for the Bob Dylan songbooks around his house. He immersed himself in music, and later hitchhiked with a friend to visit his heroes such as Pete
Seeger, Ramblin’ Jack Elliot and Utah Philips. By the age of nineteen, he claims to have played in forty-nine states.

Woody began the famed Eugene, Oregon, jug band the Kitchen Syncopators while at the Oregon Country Fair, busking for tips with Gill Landry. The Kitchen Syncopators began touring up and down the west coast, which is where they met famed Seattle street corner musician Baby Gramps. Baby Gramps recommended they try New Orleans, and gave them the name of an old flame who lived there. The Syncopators stayed for three years.
They worked street corners tirelessly, putting in hours busking, treating music like a full-time job, but it paid off: three albums later, the Kitchen Syncopators had made a lasting name for themselves.

BLUE MOSQUITOES on JULY 18th

A welcome return to the wild sounds from these young Tasmanian devils.

DOORS OPEN AT 8.00pm and there will be an Open Mic set between 8.30pm and 9.45pm before the guest band/act comes on at about 10.00pm. We no longer serve a buffet on these nights More details on the events and artistes here

Bob Gallie

Taylor Topham

Thanks to Adam Williamson for capturing this on his phone, to show you what you are missing out on our regular Thursday night Open Mic Sessions

Following the AGM held on Monday 8th October 2012, the following officers of the club have been duly elected:

Chairman: Rob Brown
Vice Chairman: Greg Aylmer
Secretary: Bryan Counsell
Treasurer: Susan Stent
PR and Acts: Dominic Wills
Fundraising: Trish Liles
Membership: Caroline Boyce
Webmaster: Graham Cook

Officers without portfolio:
Clive Bond
Bob Peel
Don Counsell
Harry Boyce
Doug Liles

It looks like the Isle of Wedmore area in Somerset has a new Folk Club. Basing itself in The Panborough Inn 3miles along the road from Wedmore to Wells. They run club nights every other friday, which started on 15th October 2010 in their skittle alley. All are very welcome, so try and get along to support this emerging club.
For further information contact Bernard Coulter (bcoulter@talktalk.net)

This year’s AGM took place on Monday 26th October 2009 at 7.30pm. Greg Aylmer was returned for the third year as Chairman, and Ted Heath took the place of Vice-Chairman.

The Ritz Acoustic Club is ten years old this month.

After an acoustic concert,open mic night in Highbridge on the First of May 1999, organised by CADS (Burnham and Highbridge Cultural Arts Society), at which local players such as Dave Neville, Pete Beech and Jim Topping gave their best, it was thought it would be a good idea to have an open mike night every week, where anyone could come along and play. So the ‘Home Brue Folk Club’ (as it was originally named) had their first night the following Friday night on 7th May 1999 and started in the skittle alley of the Crown pub in Burnham, at which 12 people attended. The events were organised by Dave Neville with help from other locals such as Pete Beech, Nigel Snook, Dave Chave and Jim Topping. As its popularity grew it soon became necessary to find a larger venue.

A few short months later the club moved to the Jubilee room in the Ritz Social Club and became a weekly event. At this time it might be worth mentioning that the club had £4.50 in the kitty, and most, if not all the equipment was either owned by Dave Neville, or begged and borrowed. The club later changed its name to ‘The Ritz Acoustic Club’ after moving to its current venue at the Ritz Social Club.

A celebratory evening was held on Thursday 21st May, with many old friends attending and performing.

The Club will be open every Thursday night as usual with the normal three sets of Open Mic. Please get there early (before 8.30pm) to book your slot. THIRD THURSDAYS are Buffet/Showcase Nights as detailed below. If you want to play on a third thursday in the two available sets, then e-mail us or phone us to book a slot.

If you’ve never played on a stage before or used a PA System, come along early at about 7.45pm and ask to have a quick practice on stage before the audience comes in. We guarantee a warm reception for new players and those who are just starting out, this could be the start of a bright career or just something you’ve always wanted to do!

The AGM took place at 7.00pm 2nd October 2008 at the Ritz Social Club, Victoria St. Burnham-on-Sea. There were no changes in the current committee, with all existing committee members being re-elected

The Committee is as follows:
Chairman: Greg Aylmer
Vice Chairman : Bryan Counsell
Secretary: Debbie Beckett
Treasurer: Doug Liles
PR and Acts: Dominic Wills
Fundraising: Trish Liles
Membership: Caroline Boyce
Webmaster: Graham Cook
Equipment Mgr: Graham Cook
Members without Portfolio:
Don Counsell
Harry Boyce
Pete Beach